Spider for well pipe



Aug. 30, 1966 J. w. TURNER, JR

SPIDER FOR WELL PIPE Filed Feb. 12, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. Ja/m/ 4 TVZA/EZ, J5

0, 1966 J. w. TURNER, JR 3,268,969

SPIDER FOR WELL PIPE F il ed Feb. 12, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,268,969 SPIDER FOR WELL PIPE John W. Turner, .l'r., Houston, Tex., assiguor to Byron Jackson, lino, Long Beach, (Jaiih, a corporation of Delaware Filed Feb. 12, 1965, Ser. No. 432,347 @laims. (Cl. 24-263) This invention relates to spiders for well pipe, more particularly for well tubing.

Well pipe or tubing spiders are commonly used in the oil. drilling and servicing industry. A spider' is a device that is set over the well hole. It has a central vertical opening therethrough. A slip assembly is seated in the vertical opening. The slip assembly is movable from its seated position in the bore of the spider to a position in Which the slip assembly is withdrawn from the central opening. Usually, a lever that is pivoted to the body of the spider is connected to the slip assembly and, on pivoting, the lever withdraws the slip assembly from its seated position. With the slips Withdrawn, a string of pipe or tubing may be run into and out of the well through the vertical opening in the spider. When it is desired to hold the pipe against downward movement, the slip assembly is dropped into its seat around the pipe. The slip assembly is contracted as it goes into the bore of the spider and the slips wedge themselves between the periphery of the pipe and the bore of the spider to securely grip the pipe and prevent it from moving downwardly.

Some means is usually provided for maintaining the slips in elevated or withdrawn position over the spider body. When the slip assembly is in a raised position, it is subject to being damaged by being hit from above by the traveling block or the the elevator carried by the traveling block. It will be understood that the traveling block and its associated elevator are parts of the usual drilling or workover rig under which the spider is employed.

It is, therefore, a principal object of the invention to provide a spider for tubing or the like wherein the slip assembly may be raised to an elevated position and latched in place, and wherein the spider has an overload release mechanism whereby, when the slip assembly is hit from above, the latch releases to allow the slip assembly to drop into the bore of the spiders body.

A further object of the invention is to provide a spider that is less likely to be damaged when struck from above or when otherwise subjected to unusual or extraordinary downward forces applied from overhead.

Still another object is to provide a spider employing a manually operated lever for raising and lowering the slip elements and including a self-engaging latch mechanism that may be manually released and that will release when the lever or slip assembly is struck from above.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a spider that is mechanically simple and structurally strong, and that will give a long and usual service life with a minimum of attention.

These, and other objects and advantages of the invention as will appear hereinafter, are realized in a spider including a body having an opening therethrough, slips seated in the opening and movable from a seated position to an unseated position and vice versa, a lever pivoted to the body and connected to the slips for moving the slips from one said position to the other, a latch element on the body, and another latch element on the lever. These latch elements are interengageable, when the lever is in a position wherein the slips are in their unseated position, for normally restraining said lever from movement in a direction to move the slips to their seated position, the latch elements being mutually disengageable for releasing the lever for movement in a direction to move the slips to their seated position. The spider of the invention has means responsive to pivoting of the lever in a direction to move the slips towards their seated position for mutually disengaging the latch elements.

More particularly, in the spider of the invention, one of the latch elements is movably mounted and, when this latch element is interengaged with the other latch element, it is adapted to be moved by the other latch element to release the other latch element in response to pivoting of the lever in a direction to move the slips toward their seated position. Resilient means are provided for biasing the movably mounted latch element against such movement.

Still more particularly, the movable latch element may be pivoted to a second lever which, in turn, is pivoted to the body of the spider. This second lever permits the latch elements to automatically engage with each other when the lever that raises the slips is actuated and also allows the latch elements to be manually disengaged.

The invention will be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a spider in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectioinal view taken along the line 2 2 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional View taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2 looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring to the drawings, the spider shown therein has a body 10. The body has a flat bottom surface 11 which rests upon any horizontal platform such as the floor of a rig. A vertical opening is provided generally centrally through the body, the opening having downwardly tapering, frusto-conical sidewalls 12. A slip assembly, designated by the general reference numeral 13, is shown as being seated in the conical vertical opening in the spider. This slip assembly has a center slip 14, a right-hand slip 15, and a left-hand slip 16. The left-hand slip is hinged to the center slip by a vertical pin 17, and the right-hand slip is similarly hinged to the center slip by a vertical pin 18. As best seen in FIG. 2, springs 19 surround the hinge pins 17 and 18 and normally urge the right-hand and left-hand slips to swing outwardly on their pins. Dies 19a are mounted in the faces of the slips and are adapted to grip a length of pipe extending vertically between them. The radially outer faces 20 of the slips, where they touch the bore 12 of the spider body, are complementary to the bore, that is, they are conical surfaces. It will be understood that a length of pipe may be held in the spider by the wedging action of the slips between the bore 12 of the spider and a length of pipe embraced between the slips.

A guard door 21 is mounted on the body 10 and secured thereon by pins 22. The guard door has an upstanding post 23 carrying at its top a semicircular door member 24. Semi-circular opening 25 of the door is concentric, with the vertical axis of the opening of the spider. The width of the door is suflicient to pass pipe for which the spider is designed. This guard door affords some protection for the spider and slips from objects descending or falling from above the spider. However, the guard door does not afford full protection for the spider. The guard door may be easily removed by removing the pins 22.

Referring to FIG. 2, the slip assembly is shown in seated position in full lines and the center slip in raised position in broken lines. When the slips are in their raised or withdrawn position, the right-hand and left-hand slips swing outwardly on their hinge pins under urgence 3 of the hinge springs 19 to provide an unobstructed opening through the bore of the spider. When the slips are lowered into seated position, they are hinged back into generally circular configuration by contact with the frustoconical ramp 65 and then the sidewalls 12 of the central opening through the spider body.

A slip lever, designated by the general reference numeral 25, is used for manually raising and lowering the slip assembly. The slip lever is pivoted on a horizontal pin 26 supported by ears 27 formed on the body.

The slip lever consists of a pair of parallel slip arms 28 pivoted on the pin 26. A foot pedal 29, having a stirrup 30 at its free end, is also pivoted on the pin 26 between the slip arms 28. The other end of the foot pedal is locked to the slip arms 28 by means of a transverse locking pin 31. A locking pin retainer 32 holds the locking pin in place.

The ends 33 of the slip arms 28 are provided with generally longitudinally extending slots 34. A transverse bolt 35 that passes through the slots 34 and through a hole in the ear 36 on the center slip 14 connects the slip arms to the slip assembly. The slots 34 provide a loose connection between the slip arms and the slip assembly so that the latter will seat properly when it is lowered into the central opening of the slip body.

Stop members 37 are formed on the cars 27. These stop members are contacted by the ends 33 of the slip arms when the slip assembly is in fully raised position for the purpose of preventing overtravel of the slip lever and the slips.

Formed integrally with the foot pedal 29, and located on the underside thereof, is a latch element 39. This latch element cooperates with another and movable latch element to hold the slip lever in slip-elevating position. The latch element 40 is moved to release the latch element 39 to permit the slip lever and the slips to return to their seated positions.

The latch element 40 is pivoted to one end of a latch arm 41 which, in turn, is pivoted at its other end to the body of the spider. As seen in FIGS. 2 and 3, the latch arm pivots on a bolt 42 supported by the ears 27. A latch arm spring 44 is coiled around the bolt 42. One end 45 of the spring engages a portion of the body and the other end 46 of the spring engages a pin 47 on the latch arm. The latch arm spring urges'the latch arm to pivot in a clockwise direction as seen in FIG. 2. Pivoting of the latch arm is limited by a transverse stop bar 48 which is contacted by the upper side of the latch arm to limit movement of the latter.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, it will be seen that the latch arm 41 has a pair of projections 49 and 50 supporting a transverse bolt 51. The movable latch element 40 is pivotally carried by this bolt between the projections. Coiled around the bolt 51 is a latch spring 52. One end 53 of the latch spring bears against a portion of the latch arm 41, and the other end 54 of the latch spring engages a stud 55 on the movable latch element. The latch element 40 is urged to pivot in .a clockwise direction as seen in FIG. 2 by the latch spring. A stop member 56 on the movable latch element shoulders against a surface 57 on the latch arm to limit rotation of the latch element in the clockwise direction. An unlatching bar 58 is formed integrally with the latch arm 41 and extends transversely thereof.

As shown in FIG. 2, the pivoting latch element 40 has a cam surface 59 and a latching surface 60 sloping away from the nose portion 61. Similarly the latch element 39, on the foot pedal 29, has a cam surface 62 and a latching surface 63 that merge into a nose portion 64.

In FIG. 2, the phantom showing of the slip lever 25 illustrates the lever in latched position with the center slip assembly 14 withdrawn from its seated position. In this disposition of the parts, the latching surfaces 60 and 63 are in engagement and are substantially parallel to one another. They may also be described as being generally-arcuate about the axis of the bolt 42 on which the release arm or the latch .arm pivots. These latching surfaces may also be considered to extend generally perpendicular to a line from the axis of the bolt 42 to the centers of the latching surfaces.

To release the slip lever 25 from its latched position, the unlatching bar 58 is depressed to swing the latch arm 41 counterclockwise. When the nose 61 of the latch element 40 slides by the nose 64 of the cooperating latch element 39, the slip lever 25 is free to pivot clockwise, which it does under the influence of gravity. Thus the slip assembly is lowered into its seated position in the bore of the spider.

To raise the slips, the slip lever 25 is depressed by the stirrup 30 until the cam surface 62 on the latch element 39 strikes the cam surface 59 on the latch element 40. Since the latch element 40 cannot pivot clockwise on its pivot bolt 51 because the stop 56 abuts the stop surface 57, the latch arm 41 is swung counterclockwise on its bolt 42. This motion lowers the nose 61 of the latch element 40 sufficiently to allow the nose 64 of the latch element 39 to pass over the top of the nose 61. As the slip lever 25 is rotated still further in a counterclockwise direction, the latch arm 41 pivots back in a clockwise direction to engage the latching surfaces 60 and 63. Thus the slip arm 25 is brought into its latched position as shown in broken lines in FIG. 2. The forces exerted by the coiled spring 44 on the latch arm 41 and by the coiled spring 52 on the movable latch element 40 are sufiicient to maintain the slip lever in latched position under normal circumstances.

If an object should strike the slip assembly 13 or the slip arms 28 from above, the overload release mechanism of the invention would operate to prevent or minimize damage to these parts. A blow thus applied to the slip arms 28 would cause the slip lever to rotate in a clockwise direction as seen in FIG. 2. The latching surface 63 and nose portion 64 of the latch element 39 would cause the latch element 40 to pivot in a counterclockwise direction as seen in FIG. 2 and allow the nose 64 to pass by the nose 61 of the latch element 40 thus releasing the slip lever 25. The slip assembly 13 would then fall into its seated position and the lever 25 would rise to the full line position of FIG. 2. Thus the possibility of damaging the spider, especially to the slip assembly and slip lever, is minimized or obviated. When the slip lever 25 is released under overload conditions, as just described, there may be some swinging movement of the latch arm 41 in a counterclockwise direction in addition to the pivotal movement of the latch member 40 on its pivot.

The spider shown and described herein by way of illustration may be modified in many ways without departing from the invention. Such modifications will readily occur to those persons ordinarily skilled in the art to which this invention pertains.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that the present invention provides a spider for well pipe and the like that meets in a highly satisfactory manner the aims and objects of the invention.

I claim:

1. A spider comprising:

(a) a body having an opening the-rethrough;

(b) slips seated in said opening and movable from a seated position to an unseated position andvice versa;

(c) a lever pivoted to said body and connected to said slips for moving said slips from one said position to the other;

(d) alatch element on said body;

(e) another latch element on said lever;

(f) said latch elements being interengageable, when said lever is in a position wherein said slips are in said unseated position, for normally restraining said lever from movement in a direction to move said slips to said seated position, said latch elements being mutually disengageable for releasing said lever for movement in a direction to move said slips to said seated position; and

( g) means responsive to pivoting of said lever in a direction to move said slips towards said seated posit-ion for mutually disengaging said latch elements from interengaigement.

2. Aspider comprising:

(a) a body having an opening therethrough;

(b) slips seated in said opening and movable from a seated position to an unseated position and vice versa;

(0) a lever pivoted to said body and connected to said slips for moving said slips from one said position to the other;

(d) a latch element on said body;

(e) another latch element on said lever;

(f) said latch elements being interengageable when said lever is in a position wherein said slips are unseated for normally restraining said lever in said position;

(1g) one of said latch elements being movably mounted and, when said latch elements are interengaged, adapted to be moved by the other of said elements to release the other of said latch elements in response to pivoting of said lever in a direction to move said slips towards said seated position; and

(h) resilient means biasing said movably mounted latch element against such movement.

3. A spider comprising:

(a) a body having an opening therethrough;

(b) slips seated in said opening and movable from a seated position to an unseated position and vice versa;

(0) a lever pivoted to said body and connected to said slips for moving said slips from one said position to the other;

(d) a latch element on said body;

(e) another latch element on said lever;

(f) means responsive to pivoting of said lever into a position wherein said slips are in said unseated position for interengaging said latch elements; and

(g) means responsive to pivoting of said lever from its position wherein said latch elements are interengaiged in a direction to move said slips towards said seated position for mutually disengaging said latch elements.

4. A spider comprising:

(a) a body having an opening therethrough;

(b) slips seated in said opening and movable from a seated position to an unseated position and vice versa;

(0) a first lever pivoted to said body and connected to said slips for moving said slips from one said position to the other;

((1) first cooperating stop means on said lever and on said body limiting pivoting of said first lever to prevent overtravel when said first lever is pivoted to move said slips to said unseated position;

(e) a first latch element on said first lever;

(f) a second lever pivoted to said body on an axis parallel to and displaced from the pivot axis of said first lever;

(g) a second latch element on said second lever, said second latch element being positioned to slide into and out of engagement with said first latch element upon pivoting of said second lever when said first stop means are cooperating to limit pivoting of said first lever;

(h) second cooperating stop means on said body and on said second lever limiting pivoting of said second lever to prevent overtravel of said second lever beyond its position where said latch elements are engaged;

(i) first resilient means biasing said second lever to slide said second latch element into engagement with said first latch element;

(j) means pivotal ly mounting said second latch element on said second lever for swinging movement of said second latch element into and out of engagement with said first latch element;

(k) third cooperating stop means on said second latch element and on said second lever limiting pivotal movement of said second latch element to prevent overtravel of said second latch element beyond its position where said latch elements are engaged;

(1) second resilient means biasing said second latch element to swing into engagement with said first latch element; and

(m) cam surfaces on said latch elements cooperating upon pivoting of said first lever into its position as limited by said first stop means for pivoting said second lever to permit said latch elements to slide into mutual engagement.

5. A spider as set forth in claim 4 wherein said latch members mutually engage along contacting surfaces substantially arcuate about the pivot axis of said second lever.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,111,535 9/1914 Greve.

2,0 30,1 11 2/ 1936 Long.

2,063,378 12/1936 Hiniker.

2,151,208 3/1939 Hiniker.

2,545,177 3/1951 True.

3,149,391 9/.1964 Boster.

WILLIAM FELDMAN, Primary Examiner.

EDWARD c. ALLEN, Examiner.

D. GRIFFIN, Assistant Examiner. 

3. A SPIDER COMPRISING (A) A BODY HAVING AN OPENING THERETHROUGH; (B) SLIPS SEATED IN SAID OPENING AND MOVABLE FROM A SEATED POSITION TO AN UNSEATED POSITION AND VICE VERSA; (C) A LEVER PIVOTED TO SAID BODY AND CONNECTED TO SAID SLIPS FOR MOVING SAID SLIPS FROM ONE SAID POSITION TO THE OTHER; (D) A LATCH ELEMENT ON SAID BODY; (E) ANOTHER LATCH ELEMENT ON SAID LEVER; (F) MEANS RESPONSIVE TO PIVOTING OF SAID LEVER INTO A POSITION WHEREIN SAID SLIPS ARE IN SAID UNSEATED POSITION FOR INTERENGAGING SAID LATCH ELEMENTS; AND (G) MEANS RESPONSIVE TO PIVOTING OF SAID LEVER FROM ITS POSITION WHEREIN SAID LATCH ELEMENTS ARE INTERENGAGED IN A DIRECTION TO MOVE SAID SLIPS TOWARDS SAID SEATED POSITION FOR MUTUALLY DISENGAGING SAID LATCH ELEMENTS. 